Happy New Year (+ Goals for 2018)!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

With the start of a new year, I thought (with some help of my lovely poll-voters) that I should do a “Goals for my Blog (2018)” post! It’s a bit of a weird one to be writing as people like to constantly tell you “blogging isn’t about numbers” but, let’s be real; it is. Seeing you stats increase is one of the best feelings in the world and for so many people like myself who have gone through life with people not caring about them, it means a hell of a lot to actually see that people like what you do. Not only do those numbers on social media total the amount of people who enjoy your content but, from my personal experience, they also signify the number of friends I have made over the course of my blog. A lot of awesome opportunities also arise from said numbers.
Whilst I may disagree to an extent that “blogging isn’t about numbers”, I do believe that you get what you give. For instance; if you want to have friendly interactions with someone on Twitter you have to be nice when talking to them. If you want to pass certain goals then you have to put in the work and effort; you can’t just expect to get things for free or for minimal effort/work.
Even though my list of goals is mainly number-oriented, know that I do not expect to just get them; I put in a lot of effort (self-promotion and hard work as an example) to achieve them and that the results I am posting of last year’s goals have only been due to me actually putting in dedication to my blog as, without it, why else would anyone click on my links or even come keep coming back?

Looking back on last year’s goal…
On the 27th of June of last year, when I started putting more effort into my blog, I decided upon two goals: one to share the information that I had gained over the last 6 or so years from actively seeking and being involved in treatment for my mental health conditions (severe anxiety and depression) and to reach 1,000 views by the 27th of July. I never thought I would reach it, never mind surpass it, so imagine how shocked I was to pass this goal by July 4th! I then changed by goal to 2k but kept the same end-date and to my absolute amazement smashed through 2k on 17th July and had ANOTHER 1,000 views by the 29th of July, 2 days after my end-of-goal date! Since then the blog has come on it leaps and bounds and I’m absolutely thrilled to finally feel as though I belong somewhere. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would ever have one viewer never mind those that consistently come back to read MY posts.

Things are a little different this year…
This year, as this incarnation of my blog and the social media accounts I have for it are still relatively new but still ending the year with some results, I want to be optimistic and tell you all what my goals are for them.

First off: my blog. 
As I’m writing this in the middle of the afternoon on December 31st (UK time), I am 11 views off from 17k. As April will be a year since the host change, I would love to surpass 20k by then. I feel like this is doable as it’s only taken me since June 27th (2017) to reach nearly 17,000 from only having 300 before the whole “putting in effort” phase.
I would like to see more people actually following my blog and signing up for email notifications.

Now for Twitter!
I made my account back in March and have been so surprised to see that I am ending the year with just over 700 followers! As someone who has no self-confidence/belief/esteem and who has been put through the wringer by toxic people, I hadn’t even dared to set a goal before as I thought “no one will want to follow me to then read my blog posts”. This year I would like to turn that 700 into 1,000 and interact with 300 new people – even if it just to say “thanks” for the follow!

Facebook & Instagram.
These two are my least favourite forms of social media. For Instagram; it’s obvious. Everyone knows how bad it’s become with posts not being in chronological order. My only goals for Instagram is to keep reporting spam accounts and maybe reach 100 followers.
With Facebook, I’m not sure what it is but people seem to be less inclined to “like” pages over there. Maybe it’s because by doing so that their own friends & family then see that they are following a mental health blog and it may create conversations that they do not want. Even so, I would still like to have 100 followers by the end of 2018.

Now these may be my goals for the year but to be honest, I’m just happy to continuing sharing my findings and journey of self-discovery.

I hope the New Year is good to you.

Happy New Year!

Anxiously,
Me

You can find Anxiously, Me on:
This blog
Twitter
Facebook
Instagram